by Leigh Kelsey
Tali rumbled beneath Lili and she tightened her grip in the demon’s fur, her stomach taking a panicked nosedive as Tali sped up, racing for the coliseum of spectators. The only silver lining Lili could find was that there wasn’t currently anyone fighting in the sunken arena. But a tunnel mouth barred by an iron grate suggested that could change. Lili pictured a lion rushing into the arena, savage and snarling, and her mouth went dry.
“Attention,” Lucifer shouted, his voice suddenly amplified so much that Lili flinched, gripping Tali’s fur tighter. “This is Lucifer, King of Hell. You are ordered to disperse. Anyone who remains will bear punishment.”
Chaos erupted.
Lili shrieked, ducking over Tali’s body as she swerved through the suddenly mobile crowd, demons running in every direction, some looking terrified but others growling with discontent. A yellow-horned man as big as a building rushed toward the two of them, his lips pulled back in a snarl, and Lili suddenly wished she’d stayed at the fortress with the rest of Nygoya’s army.
But Luc had ridden ahead, a sword lifted in his hand and black smoke rippling off his embroidered jacket. Lili could be brave. She would be. Somewhere inside her, there was demon magic. Now would be a really good time to figure out how to properly use it.
The yellow-horned demon was close enough to Tali now that Lili could see each individual needle-thin tooth, every curved striation on his immense bull horns, and instead of suddenly unlocking her magic, she flattened herself to Tali’s back with a whimper. His snarl choked off, followed by a loud crunching sound, and Lili dared to glance up to find the top half of the demon’s body dangling from Tali’s jaws, the bottom half discarded on the coliseum steps.
Lili dug her fingers into Tali’s blood-stained fur as her stomach twisted, her lips pressed firmly together as sickness rose. She screwed her eyes shut against the gruesome sight, the sound of bones crunching bad enough to have bile splashing against her throat. A shake of Tali’s head, a distant thump, and Lili figured Tali had tossed the half-corpse aside.
“I see him!” Hal shouted, somewhere to their right, and Lili glanced up, searching the frantic crowd before she realised she had no idea what Valun looked like. “There! And—aw shit.”
“Oh stars,” Lili breathed as a loud grating sound filled the arena. Even the people fleeing, either obeying Luc’s command or looking for a fight, paused as the thick metal bars across the coliseum rose. A bestial roar had Lili’s head whipping away from the tunnel entrance, searching until she pinpointed the source of that sound: a man with the head of a human, the body of a bear, and a wide crocodile’s tail. Oozing green venom slid off his fur as he launched into a run up the stairs from the dark tunnel. Towards where Luc sat astride Cherish.
Lucifer patted the hellstallion on the neck and threw his leg over her back, sliding to the ground and drawing his crossbow in one fluid movement. Before Lili could react, he’d fired seven bolts. Each one, she saw with amazement, landed in the middle of the demon’s—Valun’s—chest. And did absolutely nothing to slow his bulldozing progress through the scattered spectators.
“Oh please no,” Lili breathed as Luc threw aside the crossbow and drew the second sword from his back, holding one in each hand. “Tali, he can’t mean to fight that beast…”
Tali made a rumbling sound, jerking her big head towards the grate in the arena. A different sort of creature had crawled out.
It was as big as Valun but resembled a scorpion, its carapace bright, vicious red streaked with black, and the stinger curling over its back glinting in the weak sunlight. Unlike the scorpions Lili had seen, this one had four pincers, one for each limb protruding from its torso. Oh, and the best part: it was on fire. Blue, wicked fire that looked hot enough to melt iron to ore.
“Um,” Lili said. “That looks deadly.”
“She is,” a familiar voice snapped, Renna drawing up beside them on her blue-grey hellstallion. “And lucky us, we get to fight her.”
“We?” Lili squeaked. “But I can’t—I don’t know how to use my magic.”
“You wanted to come with us.” Renna shrugged a narrow shoulder, raising an eyebrow. A challenge. “Get angry, Your Highness. That’ll unlock your power.”
Anger. Lili nodded, gazing across the thinning crowd to see the bear-crocodile-demon swipe its venomous tail at Lucifer’s legs. Luc dodged easily, with all the grace of a cat, but still … to see Valun try to hurt Luc—Lili’s Luc—made her blood boil like a seething volcano. Exactly as she’d known it would, her magic surged.
“Atta girl,” Renna praised, sitting straight in the saddle of the massive horse and flicking her wrist. What had appeared to be a short pole in her hand snapped into a spear as long as Cherish was tall. “I’ll take the right side. You two take the left. Oh, and Tali?”
Tali rumbled in reply, her beady eyes fixing on Renna.
“Anything happens to the angel, and Lucifer will have your head. Just a reminder,” she added sweetly, and ignoring Tali’s fierce snarl, she dug her heels into the side of her hellstallion and shot forward.
“Well.” Lili said breathless, anchoring her left hand in Tali’s fur and tearing free the dagger at her thigh with another. It was a measly weapon when compared with the scorpion skittling across the sandy arena.
She swallowed hard, reaching for that pouring lava in her blood and praying to all the gods, but especially artemis, goddess of the hunt, that her magic wouldn’t fail her.
“We’d better go help her,” Lili breathed as Renna launched her spear at the scorpion demon spitting blue fire.
Tali shrugged in agreement, Lili yelping as she was almost unseated and then screaming as Tali went from zero to three hundred in a split second. The two of them launched into a cheetah-fast sprint down the crudely carved steps, unerringly aimed at the sandy arena floor and the deadly scorpion snapping its pincers at them.
The dagger felt pathetic in Lili’s sweaty fist, but she kept tight hold of it anyway as Tali raced down the jagged stone steps into the sandy arena. Renna was already locked in ferocious battle with the scorpion demon, a piercing shriek sounding as the creature’s pincer clashed with Renna’s golden spear.
Behind them, atop the coliseum steps, a man let out a growl of pain and even though Lili had no way of knowing it was Lucifer or Hal, rage churned in her belly at the possibility. She grabbed hold of that roiling power, fanning the flames of her anger as Tali’s claws dug into the sand and they swerved, coming up behind the scorpion creature. Right by its stinger.
“Um,” Lili whispered. “I’m not sure this is the best place to be. Tali!”
Tali jerked them out of the way at the very second that massive, razor-sharp stinger came down. This close it was clear to see acid red poison dripping from the tip.
“We’re going to die,” Lili moaned.
Tali’s body rumbled as she laughed. There was nothing about Tali that reminded Lili of Gabriel, but for some reason his sneering laugh echoed through her head, drowning out the sounds of Renna screaming her fury and the scorpion’s high-pitched battle cry. In Lili’s mind, she was back on the cliff edge of Wisteria, her back in screaming agony, her wings severed from her and the man she loved laughing at her naivety in believing he loved her. Him, Ilaian, and Raphael all sneering down at her, smirks on their faces as they kicked her out of her only home, as they used the Severance on her just so she could spy for them in Hell.
So she could do their job for them, taking on all the risks while they sat up in Heaven doing nothing.
Rage unlike anything Lili had ever known burned through her and she howled with fury, her eyes narrowing on the demon before them and sound rushing back in.
“Atta girl,” Renna shouted, swinging her spear to clash with a darting claw.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Lili warned, “but you should get out of the way.”
“Easier said than done,” Renna barked, sunlight catching the sweat beading on her lilac skin, plastering black hair to her face as she tried
to yank the spear free. But the scorpion demon had firm hold, a pincer locked around the stem of the weapon.
Tali uttered a low warning and Renna swore with displeasure, surrendering her spear and jerking her hellstallion out of the way as rage and magic built in Lili. Her breath caught, heat soaring inside her like a fire seeking a way out. The demon’s stinger lashed toward Tali’s face and Lili just acted.
The magic instinctively erupted free, visible as a streak of flame that slammed into the curled red stinger and devoured it. It didn’t turn to ash, didn’t explode like a star, it was simply there one second and gone the next.
Lili’s heart pounded, the expulsion of scorching magic making her vision blur and vertigo rush into her. She slumped over Tali as they darted away from the shrieking scorpion. Dizziness raged but Lili kept her eyes open with effort, danger slamming into her awareness and keeping her conscious. The stinger might have been gone but there were still four pincers and a giant body to contend with.
Tali growled a low note that Lili imagined was be careful as Renna swung her hellstallion around the side of the scorpion demon and, either reckless or genius, leapt from the saddle, landing on the scorpion’s back. The electric blue flames seemed to have no effect on Renna, and with the stinger gone, the demon had no way to reach Renna where she straddled her, though she writhed and buckled wildly, trying to throw her off.
“Is there anything we can do?” Lili asked quietly, the dizziness gradually burning away and her eyes sharpening as adrenaline swallowed her fatigue.
Tali gave a shrug that nearly knocked Lili off.
“I’ve got this,” Renna said through gritted teeth. “You just stay there and watch how it’s done, Your Highness.”
Her arrogance was likely going to get her hurt but Lili did as Renna said, not wanting to get in the way.
“Why do you always have to be such a bitch, Indira?” Renna hissed, and it took a second for Lili to realise she was talking to the scorpion demon. Renna knew her.
The scorpion screeched what was probably a very impolite reply and Lili watched closely, her magic rising again—albeit slowly—just in case the demon made any sudden moves to hurt Renna. But Renna unhooked a rope from her belt that Lili hadn’t noticed, and with a quick snap of her wrist, she lashed it around the demon’s front two pincers. For a moment, Lili thought her eyesight was fading again but no, the whip really was glowing electric purple. Within seconds, the scorpion collapsed, limp on the sandy arena floor.
“Is she … dead?” Lili dared to ask as Tali edged closer, wary of those pincers.
“No,” Renna barked, jumping to the sandy arena floor and brushing her palms on her tough leather trousers, no burn mark in sight. “Just unconscious. We’ll throw her in jail, interrogate her, see what the fuck made her turn rogue.”
Lili’s eyes were wide. “Are you hurt?”
Amusement curled Renna’s dark mouth. “Worried, Your Highness?”
Lili flushed but she nodded. “Yes. You’re Lucifer’s friend, so … yes, I’m worried.”
Renna’s smirk softened into a genuine smile. “I’m fine. I’m immune to demon burns, and Indira only managed a few scratches before you took out the stinger.”
Lili tightened her grip on the dagger, glancing around the arena. It should have been blood splattered and littered with torn-off limbs after a fight like that but the sand was immaculate. Well, except for the unconscious scorpion sprawled in the middle of it. “There aren’t any more surprises in there, are they?” Lili pointed at the tunnel Indira had come through.
“Shouldn’t be, but you never know.” Impossibly, Renna grinned, grabbing her fallen spear from the ground and flicking it out to its full length in front of her. “Let’s go find out.”
“I don’t know why you look so happy,” Lili mumbled as Tali followed Renna across the arena, her big head swivelling to search for threats.
“Are you kidding?” Renna threw a grin over her shoulder. “I’ve been cooped up in that palace for weeks. This is the most fun I’ve had in ages.”
Tali huffed a sigh and rolled her eyes, trudging after Renna under the metal grate and into the dark corridor beyond.
“Where is she?” Lucifer demanded, spinning Cherish in a circle, red smoke snorting from the hellstallion’s nostrils. The last of the rogues had either fled or been rounded up, the majority of the crowd scattering when Lucifer subdued Valun, glowing purple rope wrapped around the alpha demon’s throat. Luc could have suffocated him there and then, and ordinarily would have done, but he wanted to know what had convinced Valun that he could break Lucifer’s laws and get away with it.
He’d said something while they fought, the words repeating in Lucifer’s head. It’s only a matter of time before your Hell falls. It’s barely clinging on now, you can’t be blind to it. When you’re gone, demons like us—true demons—will bring back the old ways. We’ll hang your head on a spike in front of your beloved palace.
Hell wasn’t falling; Lucifer would know if it was. The only considerable threat to his reign had been the angels, at least until these breaches started opening up, allowing rogue demons to flood the streets of Earth and sow destruction and violence.
It hadn’t escaped his notice that only the foulest demons had broken free; the flesh eaters, the blood drinkers, the violators. Maybe Lucifer had been blind, and a rebellion had been forming under the surface for years. The idea hit a weak part inside Luc and he shied away from it, but he couldn’t let pride blind him. There was an uprising at the very least, and one that seemed to be gathering momentum.
If they weren’t careful, this uprising, these breaches, and the fugitives would be the final straws in the angel-demon war hovering over their heads like a guillotine.
It’s only a matter of time before your Hell falls.
Maybe war was the idea—the goal. The alpha demons would allow the angels to sweep into Hell, kill Lucifer, and destroy a good portion of what he’d built in his long years, and when Luc, his guard, and anyone loyal to him were gone … the alphas would step in.
Something occurred to Lucifer—the idea of the angels and alphas working together to erase a common enemy: him—but there was no chance demons and angels could work effectively together. Gods knew Luc had been trying to accomplish that for years.
“There,” Hal said, interrupting Luc’s train of thought. Lucifer followed Hal’s line of sight and a knot in his chest eased up at the sight of Liliana on Tali’s back, her mousy brown ponytail flying through the air behind her and her pale skin streaked with dust and sand. When they were close enough to touch, Luc saw her brown eyes were sparkling. It had to be adrenaline, but Lili looked almost happy.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she breathed when Tali bounded up the last coliseum step, Lili sliding off her back and stumbling towards Luc. Lucifer dismounted and bound her up in his arms, sighing deeply before he caught himself and erased every bit of emotion from his expression, peeling her arms from around him.
If there was an uprising in Hell, and one aimed at usurping him, anyone he valued was in danger. He couldn’t allow his feelings for Liliana to show. Not in the open at least.
“Come on,” he said softly, trying to ease the rejection he saw in her big brown eyes. “Let’s go home. Liliana, you ride with me.”
He settled his hands on her hips, battling the urge to draw her into his body, and lifted her onto Cherish’s tall back. The hellstallion turned her head to give him a questioning look, sensing the disquiet in him; she’d always been attuned to his moods. He patted her shoulder in reassurance, swinging onto her back behind Lili and hauling the angel in close. Her riding with him gave him the perfect excuse to nestle close to her. He lowered his lips to her ear and discreetly whispered, “We’ll talk as soon as we’re away from Aarvul, sweetheart.”
“About what?” Lili whispered, settling back against him, whether in response to his closeness or his gentle tone.
He wanted to tilt her face towards his and kiss her, but
he just tightened his grip on the reins.
“I may be in danger,” he murmured. “And I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
Lili’s mouth opened but she slammed it shut, a flash of rage in her eyes. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” she swore fiercely, and Lucifer’s heart stuttered, his arm tightening around her. This tiny, fragile angel was vowing to protect him—a demon and the King of Hell. He was hundreds of years older than her, a warrior in his own right, and he had enough power to make even Heaven afraid. But still she’d defend him.
Lucifer’s old heart softened even further towards her and he hovered perilously close to asking her to be his queen. But Lili had only just escaped an abusive relationship and Luc refused to push her too far, too soon. So he pressed his mouth shut, dug his heels into Cherish’s sides, and led the way out of Aarvul.
The ride back to Iarlon passed in a blur, adrenaline raging through Lili’s system as she went over everything that had happened that day. There’d been another demon in the arena tunnel but Renna—who Lili had decided was okay, even if she was too sharp-tongued for her liking—and Tali had subdued the man quickly, a glowing purple rope coiling around his throat until he fell unconscious. He, Indira, and the demons Hal and Lucifer had restrained had been taken to the fortress dungeons in Aarvul where Nygoya and her highly trusted team would interrogate them. To find out about the secret rebellion that wanted to hurt her Lucifer and take over Hell.
Anger had burned in Lili for a long, long time. She was only now starting to calm down as she slid into bed, Luc’s arm wrapping around her middle and drawing her back against his chest, his kisses scattered over her shoulder, mindful of her bandages.
She’d managed to convince herself that Lucifer didn’t really want her earlier today, in those few minutes between Luc prying her hands off him and him explaining why he had. She’d thought it had been a mistake, him caring for her, kissing her, pleasuring her; she’d thought he’d regretted it and had realised he wanted her far away from him. But the easy way he held her now, the kisses they’d exchanged since they got back, and the gentle way he’d tended to the wounds on her aching back reassured her.